You don’t have to be a large company with a great brand to deliver an automated, personalized, one-to-one customer experience.

Chitayat: Plan now for 2014 success

By: Commentary January 14, 2014Comments Off on Chitayat: Plan now for 2014 success

Are you automating? Automated trigger emails are being used more by B2C and B2B to improve ROI. The automation requires a bit of “what-if-then” thinking upfront, but it’s extremely effective and worth the effort. An easy one is a three-part “welcome” email series that introduces your brand to recipients who sign up for emails from your site or social media channels. Try automating a re-engagement sequence to help get the next sale.

What are you doing about cart abandonment? In 2013, there was a huge increase in the number of e-commerce sites integrating cart-abandonment emails. These one-to-one emails have proven extremely effective, with typical conversions of 15 to 30 percent. In 2014, the trend should continue and be augmented with more browser-abandonment emails – automated emails sent to people who browsed a section of your website, with dynamic content related to what they browsed for. Be careful about how aggressively you send these emails – testing is recommended!

The good news is you don’t have to be a large company with a great brand to deliver an automated, personalized, one-to-one customer experience. Such functionality is now affordable even for the small-business owner.

These tips should start you on the right path for a successful 2014 email marketing strategy. Good luck!

Chitayat is a partner at OpenMoves, a Huntington-based email and search marketing firm.